A NEW SONG.
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CUpid, as you shall understand,
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Has acted a knavish part,
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His bow was bent, an arrow sent
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Quite thro an old mans heart;
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His age was fourscore and sixteen,
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He had a great mind to wed
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A plump, young jade; for why? tis said,
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He longd for a maidens head.
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Resolvd he was to court a lass
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With a black and rolling eye,
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With milk-white skin, and double chin,
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Which caused his courage to rise;
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Then this old man brushd up his beard,
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By fancies he was led
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To court a maid; for why? tis said,
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He longd for a maidens head.
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Then he did for his crutches call,
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That a wooing he might go;
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And when he came before his dame
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He made her a bow so low;
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He said, Can you fancy a good old man,
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Who has a great mind to wed?
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My charming fair, I do declare
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I long for a maidens head.
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The damsel made him this reply:
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What makes you in such heat?
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So old and grey therefore I pray,
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Think on your winding sheet:
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Your age is fourscore and sixteen,
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With you Ill never wed;
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What would you have? Think on your grave,
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And not of a maidens head.
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Besides the world would think it strange
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My passion should be so strong,
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So much in years as it appears
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Old age cannot tarry long:
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For women that are both blind and lame
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They have a great mind to wed;
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Its so with me, my dear, said he,
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I long for a maidens head.
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Do you think I am going to marry one
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Thats troubled with stone and gout,
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Diseasd, I know, from top to toe,
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Can hardly crawl about:
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You cannot please a woman well
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In the toys of a marriage-bed,
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What would you have? Think on your grave,
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And not on a maidens head.
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This old man went home in discontent,
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And troubled very sore,
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And, like an ape, he hangd himself,
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An hundred wanting four;
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His crutches did behind him lay,
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Alone as he lay dead,
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To testify that he did die
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For the sake of a maidens head.
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This damsel mourns with pleasant smiles,
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And every tear that falls
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Would drown a town, or quite wash down
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An hundred castle-walls:
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Its said she wrote upon his tomb,
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So fair for to be read,
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Here lies one, underneath this stone,
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Who died for a maidens head.
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